My wife and I listened through the wall to a spectacular verbal fight in the room next door to us in a Toronto hotel. It lasted through the late evening and most of the night. The argument, although you could scarcely call it that for no points were ever made or countered, had a great deal in common with many musical and literary traditions: the use of intense but slightly varied repetitions coupled with sparsely chosen materials. Bad Marriage Mantra is not a reenactment of this fight, but a stylized realization of a different fight with the same deep structure. It goes like this: THE HUSBAND. THE WIFE. THE BAD MARRIAGE MANTRA.